Dora core

DORA Core Model

DORA measures how fast and how safely a team delivers software. It is the bridge between product strategy (what to build, when to release) and technical execution (how to build it reliably).

---

The 4 Key Metrics

Metric	What it measures
Deployment Frequency (DF)	How often code is deployed to production
Lead Time for Changes (LT)	Time from code commit to running in production
Change Failure Rate (CFR)	% of deployments causing a production incident
Time to Restore (MTTR)	Time to recover from a production failure

---

Performance Tiers

Tier	Deployment Frequency	Lead Time	Change Failure Rate	MTTR
Elite	On-demand (multiple/day)	< 1 hour	0–5%	< 1 hour
High	1/day – 1/week	1 day – 1 week	6–15%	< 1 day
Medium	1/week – 1/month	1 week – 1 month	16–30%	1 day – 1 week
Low	1/month – 1/6 months	1 month – 6 months	16–30%	> 1 week

Elite and High performers deploy 973× more frequently and have 6,570× faster recovery than Low performers (DORA 2023 State of DevOps).

---

Key Capabilities (The Drivers)

DORA research identifies capabilities that predict high performance. Focus on these highest-impact ones:

Technical Capabilities

Capability	Impact	Integration
Loosely Coupled Architecture	#1 predictor of high DF	c4-model L2 container boundaries, ddd-core Bounded Contexts
Trunk-Based Development	Reduces integration debt	Short-lived branches, feature flags
Continuous Integration	Reduces LT and CFR	Automated test on every commit
Test Automation	Reduces CFR	Unit + integration tests in CI
Deployment Automation	Reduces LT	One-click or auto deploy to prod
Shifting Left on Security	Reduces CFR	Security checks in CI, not post-deploy
Monitoring & Observability	Reduces MTTR	Metrics, logs, traces in production
Database Change Management	Reduces CFR	Schema migrations versioned and automated

Process Capabilities

Capability	Impact
Working in Small Batches	Directly reduces LT and CFR
Streamlining Change Approval	Manual approval gates are the #1 LT killer
Team Experimentation	Faster learning → better product decisions
Customer Feedback	Shorter feedback loop → less wasted work

Cultural Capabilities

Capability	Impact
Generative Culture (Westrum)	High trust, blameless postmortems → faster MTTR
Psychological Safety	Teams that can surface problems fix them faster
Learning Culture	Continuous improvement on all 4 metrics

---

DORA Assessment: How to Use

1. Measure current tier — ask for each of the 4 metrics in the last 30 days
2. Identify the bottleneck metric — which metric is worst relative to its tier?
3. Map to capability — use the table above to find the root capability gap
4. Prioritize — fix the bottleneck capability first; others are downstream

Quick Diagnostic Questions

• "How often do you deploy to production?" → Deployment Frequency tier
• "How long from git commit to live in prod?" → Lead Time tier
• "What % of deploys caused a hotfix or rollback in the last quarter?" → CFR tier
• "When production broke last, how long to restore?" → MTTR tier

---

Integration with Other Skills

→ diffusion-release-tracking

Deployment Frequency is a prerequisite signal before advancing Rogers Gates:

• Elite/High DF (daily+): can iterate rapidly through Innovator → Early Adopter gates
• Medium DF (weekly): gate advancement is slower; plan for longer validation windows
• Low DF (monthly): cannot run proper phased rollouts — fix DF first before attempting Rogers gate strategy

→ collaborative-engineering-agent

DORA Metric	CEA Practice
Lead Time ↓	Atomic PRs (<200 lines), trunk-based dev reduces integration bottleneck
CFR ↓	Dialectical Review Engine (DRE) catches issues before merge
MTTR ↓	Automated fix-branch workflow, observability tooling

→ c4-model + ddd-core

• Loosely Coupled Architecture (DORA's #1 capability) is achieved through:
  • C4 L2: independent deployable containers with clear API boundaries
  • DDD: Bounded Contexts with anti-corruption layers prevent cascade failures
• Conway's Law applies: if the org structure is tightly coupled, the architecture will be too — and DF suffers

→ business-product-leadership

DORA Tier	Product Strategy Implication
Elite	Deploy on-demand → rapid MVP validation, tight Rogers feedback loop
High	Weekly deploys → manageable Early Adopter gate iteration
Medium	Monthly deploys → must plan Rogers gate windows months in advance
Low	Cannot run agile product strategy — delivery is the bottleneck

---

Anti-Patterns

• Measuring DF but ignoring CFR — high DF with high CFR = fast failure, not fast delivery
• Using DF as a vanity metric — deploying to staging doesn't count; production only
• Manual change approval gates — DORA research shows this is the single biggest LT killer, with no measurable CFR improvement
• Optimizing MTTR with more process — MTTR is reduced by observability and psychological safety, not more approval steps
• Treating DORA as a report card — metrics are diagnostic tools, not performance reviews